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Baptistry of St John
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The baptistry dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, saint patron of the city of Florence, rises in front of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore.
It has octagonal plan, with a 25,60 m diameter, equal to the one of the dome of the cathedral. The necessity of a building of immense dimensions is explained with the requirement to receive the crowd that in ancient time received the baptism in only two dates per year. The building is covered with a dome with eight segments.
The external decoration is in white marble of Carrara and green marble of Prato, marked by three horizontal bands, that are repeated in the inner decoration; the christening font in origin occupied the center of the pavement, splendidly embellished from marble inlays with the Zodiac's signs and geometric patterns.
In the columns of the southern door two rectangles are carved in bas-relief: they are two measures of length in use in the Middle Ages: the longobard foot and the florentine foot.
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